Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Corn Dog

A brilliant woman named Lisa emailed me after seeing my recipe for vegan Twinkies, and suggested I use my new Twinkie pan to bake vegan corn dogs (didn't I tell you the woman is brilliant?). I used the easy corn bread recipe posted in the comments on February 16th, replacing 1/3 cup maple syrup with 1/3 cup plain soymilk to make it not quite so sweet. I covered the bottom of the cup with batter, set a (slightly trimmed) veggie dog in the middle, then covered it with more batter. I baked them at 350º for 25 minutes, and packed one in the lunch box with a tiny container of ketchup, baked Kettle Chips, steamed Brussels sprouts, and pink grapefruit segments.Verdict: I baked two dogs so I could peek inside one and make sure it was done -- they were perfect! When shmoo came in the room I closed it back up and set it before him. "A Twinkie!" he said. "Open it up," I told him. He peered inside. "It's...a TWINKIE DOG!" he exclaimed. "COOL!" The other cool thing that happened today was shmoo choosing to eat his Brussels sprouts at mid-morning snack time instead of his fruit. Have I mentioned they sometimes get a mid-morning snack break? Well, they do, and he always chooses to eat his fruit and/or dessert, so it was neat to hear that he chose the veggie first. 5 stars.Thanks, Lisa!

96 comments:

Another awesome lunch! What a fantastic idea to make the corn dogs. Will have to keep that in mind for my own lunch. I do take my lunch to work everyday. Buying it seems like such a waste of $$. But then I quite often get bored. You're blog has been a real inspiration, not only for young children, but for us "older" ones as well. Thanks Jennifer!

Did you know that the company that makes Kettle Chips uses the left over oil from frying to make bio-diesel to run their delivery trucks? So the more they sell, the more trucks go out, the more chips they make, the more biodiesel they use instead of regular gas. Awesome!

Please don't take this the wrong way, it is not meant to be offensive. Why do vegans eat things like "fake" hot dogs or "fake" beef? Isn't veganism totally against killing animals. Why would you want to eat something that is replicating a dead animal? I am honestly just curious...

With all the wonderful (and some what heated) comments you've been getting I just stopped all together but I had to chime in today becaus this has to be one of the COOLEST things you've done in a while! Awesome, Awesome AWESOME! Now I REALLY should get one of these canoe pans!

anonymous-Jennifer has answered this before. It's because Shmoo really likes them, and for him it's a good substitute for the meat, while still allowing him to be a normal little boy in comparison to his friends (how am I doing, Jennifer?) because showing Shmoo that veganism is easy and cool means it can have a more positive and lasting effect on his awareness later in life. And, hey, if you can make vegan Twinkies then maybe you can convert some of his little Shmoo-ey buddies.

Hey, anonymous, I'll answer your question! I've been playing with this concept in my mind for a while now (and wrote a long piece on my blog about it a while ago). I personally enjoy the occasional meat analogue in my diet, although I think the idea of a flesh analogue sometimes makes me uneasy.

I guess I feel that veganism is an ethical stance and lifestyle (no leather, wool, honey, animal products, animal-free personal-care items, etc.) that goes beyond dietary preference. So, essentially, people who go vegan tend to be concerned with ethics as a whole. I have met very few people who went vegan simply because they didn't like the taste of meat-- in fact, I admit to anyone I meet that I liked the taste of meat when I was an omni. But I gave it up because eating it was unneccesary and cruel.

I think that meat analogues serve a purpose. Vegans who formerly enjoyed the taste of meat may like the variety that they bring to a diet. New vegans/vegetarians may like the fact that comfort foods from their omnivorous days are still available to them in a cruelty-free form. And, for some vegans/vegetarians, meat analogues provide a nice middle ground for family gatherings with omnivorous relatives-- in fact, I just made "steak" and "chicken" fajitas with my omnivorous parents.

Many vegans, however, don't like meat analogues (on many counts-- nutritionally, philosophically, and in terms of taste and texture). I kind of play with this idea myself-- why am I OK with eating fake chicken if I'm creeped out by the idea of eating fake cat? After all, morally, I take the stance that it is just as wrong to eat a cat as it is to eat a chicken. . . so yeah.

I don't think there's a quick and easy answer to your question. I do know that when I eat my tofurkey sandwich, I enjoy it on a taste level, and on a moral level--nothing had to die for me to eat my lunch. I know in my head that the sandwich (or pot pie, or whatever) I'm consuming is cruelty-free. And really, I've been vegan/vegetarian for so long, I don't even know if meat analogues taste like flesh or not. I mean, they kind of just taste like chewey salty protein stuff. I don't really think that most animal analogues "replicate a dead animal" as they don't contain fake bones, fake gristle, fake e.coli, whatever. So it doesn't really seem "dead" to me.

This is long. I hope I gave you a kind of idea as to what some vegans feel about this issue!

Thanks for answering my question. I really love this blog and the ideas are so wonderful. Even though I'm not a vegan I find so many wonderful and healthy ideas here. It's great to have so many options that children will enjoy and are good for them too.

I agree with the vegan vulcan. For most people fake "meat" is a great transitioin food (I tricked my boyfriend with veggie pepperoni!) I never really liked the stuff and though it probably isn't to healthy (it is very processed and dyed), it is great for those who like/miss the taste of meat. Besides, even if it's not exactly "health food" it is SO much healthier than real meat that is often full of antiobiotics, steroids, etc.!!

P.S.- Jennifer- Once again I love this lunch!! Great idea!! I use to love corn dogs before I went vegan and I still miss them!! I don't like veggie dogs when they're plain so I'm gonna try these! Thanx for another great idea!!

My 2 cents for anonymous about vegetarians eating fake meat products -- Great question! For me, it is so liberating to bite into a tofu pup and enjoy it without wondering if this is the bite with the eyeball...or grisle...or ligaments...or whatever else they put in them! Speaking of veggie dogs -- what a clever idea!

Just today I bought ingredients to experiment and make my daughter safe corn dogs for her food allergies and I come home and find that you had done it for little schmoo!!! I will definitely be using your recipe. Thank you so much!

ok, so i just found this site and i gotta say, YOU ARE BRILLIANT. this is so cool. one of the kids i babysit and another one i tutor are both major vegetarians and once i show them the "twinky dog" (ha, that's so cool!) they're sure to flip! great site!

Hi Jennifer. The corn dog looks awesome, and my boyfriend would probably kiss my feet if I made him one of those.

On a different note, I have been studying food combining principles a little bit, and I've read that it's best to eat fruit on an empty stomach and wait at least 30 minutes or longer before eating a meal. Apparently when we eat fruit with our meals it causes fermentation and hinders the digestive process. Anyway, don't worry too much if he always picks fruit for his snack, cause it seems like that's a good thing from the research I've been doing (this topic is also has to do with Candida-related disorders which also relate to The Body Ecology Diet if anyone wants to look up more info). Also, most vegetables combine well with everything, so you can't go wrong there!

p.s. Obviously, I realize that veganism has enough rules to where you wouldn't want to bog him down with even more restrictions, but I think it's good to be aware of as many nutritional theories as possible.

My family uses analogs which, most often, do not taste anywhere NEAR the flavor of the real thing. We use them for creative cooking and for additional protein sources. Quite honestly, I could careless if my hotdogs taste, look, or smell like hotdogs. What I care about is if it tastes good.

That corn dog looks so dang good! Shmoo is lucky to have such a great mom who puts so much thought into his lunches. They are always so healthy and creative. I think of all the parents I see at the grocery store buying their kids lunchables, TV dinners, chips and soda and it makes me cringe. You should think about writing a cookbook with these recipes. I think it would be a huge hit! Thanks for sharing with us.

In my household we use meat analogs here and there for their culinary function. My husband is a big fan of them because they serve as a good vehicle for barbecue sauce/wing sauce/peanut sauce/etc. I enjoy cooking and although I buy vegan cookbooks when I can, with some cuisines these simply aren't available. Veg meat can be great for that purpose; it's a substitute that doesn't require additional recipe tweaking, which is nice when I'm trying something out for the first time.

I really like the philosophy of the guy who runs the Field Roast company. He makes what he calls "vegan grain meats." They're not called fake hot dogs or turkey or anything, they have their own vegetable flavors and stand on their own as delicious products. What they do is combine eastern use of gluten to stimulate meat texture with the western tradition of making flavored mixtures like sausage.

They're a good stand-in for the meat in recipes or as part of a meal, but they taste uniquely good. And he doesn't have any problem with calling them "vegetarian meat," because that's what they are. People understand what that means without having to explain it. They understand what to do with it. It's good, made with identifiable ingredients, and has flavors of things we recognize (like 'tomatoes' and 'lentils').

Hey ! What a great blog !! Fantastic meals - sorry my english is very bad ;-((. I am training for marathon, and this meals are realy good and light for my stomage - and trainings in the eavening..... Angie - Germany !!!

Hi, Jennifer, It occurs to me that you need a prominent Faq link, including pointers to places for discussions about why vegan, where to get the lunch box (I know there's already a link for that in the page), why fake meat, etc.

Hi there, Jennifer this is a great blog. We are not a vegan household but do try to eat healthy and organic. You have inspired me to start my own blog for the rest of us who eat "everything"! The mums at my sons Kindergarten kept asking me what I was packing in his snack boxes and when I found your blog, well it was my last push to get it going! In case anyone is interested my blog is the The Daily Tiffin.

One of the most interesting vegan meals I've ever seen. You could seel those commercially, I know I'd buy them! Morningstar Farms make corn dogs but I think they have egg whites in them along with a load of very unpronouncable ingredients.

So, your son actually likes brussel sprouts?!? wow... You're so blessed to have such a smart and sophisticated eater. ESPECIALLY since you make such lovely meals every day. It would be such a waste if he was one of those picky eaters who likes nothing but junk (not that they don't grow out of it). Hey, I did. :) But yeah, you and Schmoo (& hubby) were definitely made for each other. Keep it up!

I'm a vegetarian and I originally became one because I didn't like the taste of meat/found it gross. I always hated when my parents served steak when I was growing up and I would point out to them that what they called "juice" was actually blood. Yeah, they really liked that.

That being said, I eat fake "meats" because 1)it's easy and 2) I find they don't taste too meaty for me and I avoid the ones taht do and 3) my husband is omni and it's easy to make veggie burgers together because he enjoys them as much as I do.

By the way, I love this corndog idea! My husband loves the veggie corn dogs from Morningstar Farms and I think it would blow his mind if I made them for him from scratch!

Ohhh you're making my son a happy kid! :) He's been requesting vegan corndogs for ages now and I wasn't sure how to go about it. Now I'm off to buy a twinkie set! Thanks so much for all your wonderful ideas!

There's a difference between 'fake meat' and 'real meat'...nothing died or suffered so I can enjoy it. I used to like chicken, and am so used to using it in recipes, that it's refreshing to be able to use the fake stuff in place of it. It's not very chickeny really, it's like...a mirror reflection of it. It tricks your taste buds and brain because it looks so much like the real thing, even though the texture and taste is off.

That said, I get where the long term veggies are coming from. I bought a packet of fake riblets last week, and I couldn't eat them. They were SO authentic, I thought I was seeing bits of sinew and fat in it. Just turned my stomach!

The fact of the matter is... I LOVED the taste of meat. If they could find a way to safely grow meat in a lab, without ever using an animal to do it and without risk to my health from added chemicals, etc. I would probably add it back into my diet in moderation (since we all know meat is pretty bad for you!).

Fake meats give me a chance to enjoy the things I liked to eat back in the day but in a more ethical and healthful way.

However, I don't generally buy fake meats because (1) they're sort of high in sodium and (2) they're EXPENSIVE!!! Every now and then I'll make a run to May Wah grocery (www.vegieworld.com) and get some of their mock meats, which are less sodium than commercial brands and at a reasonable price... but even that pulls my purse strings a little bit.

When I was an omni, my meals consisted of a meat, potatoes of some type or another and a vegetable. Very traditional. Very boring.

It wasn't until I went veg that I started eating meals from outside that format regularly instead of just in ethnic restaurants or as treats.

I found myself eating more single-dish type meals, like curry, chilli, pasta, salads and stir fry. Or meals consisting of lots of small servings of things, like smorgasboards, tapas, sushi or dim sum. Trying to find varied sources of iron and protein meant I experimented with a ton of foods that I'd never tried before.

So while the fake meats have their place for omnis making the transition or as a comfort food for people who miss meat, I feel bad when I see people relying on them too much, because it means they're missing out on what was - to me - one of the unexpected pleasures of going veg.

Ordered my pan today! Had it in my mind ever since I saw Jennifer's twinkie recipe (I'm sorry - there is no other "comfort food" than a twinkie for me ...) and once I saw the corn dog twinkie I was a goner. Ordered mine from bakerscatalog.com.Debbi

jenniferschmoo: my family and I are vegans (for health reasons, although we are delighted for the side effect of not harming animals). My mother-in-law lives in Kennewick, too and became a vegetarian a couple years ago and is trying to go vegan.

She complains that there isn't much too choose from in regards to health food in the Tri-Cities, and as far as I know there is only the Fred Meyer nutritional section and Hiland Health. Is there somewhere else in the area to which I can direct her?

I lived in Tri-Cities for 12 years myself and felt at times I was the only health conscious person there (10 years ago). Now I'm back in my native Portland area and blessed for the huge variety. It's as close as one can get to veggie paradise in regards to stores and restaurants. But that doesn't help my mother-in-law!

Geosomin, I couldn't find the betty Crocker "cream canoe set" on the Betty Crocker site (though they have lots of other interesting stuff), but I found one here;http://www.shop.com/op/~Cream_Canoe_Pan_(10_pc_set)-prod-26905856

Brussels Sprouts' origins are European, and specifically near Brussels, Belgium. :-) Or at least, that's where they were first cultivated in a significant way. That's where the name comes from. After all, what would 'Brussel' be?

Actually, looking at that Wikipedia article I have to say that personally I don't really consider "Brussel sprouts" a misspelling. The English name for the city is "Brussels," the Flemish name is "Brussel," and the French name is "Bruxelles," so personally I think the sprouts could legitimately be described with any of these names.

I was just wondering how this would work with a "cheese" filling? I don't know the melting properties of vegan "cheese." But it might be something to try. Or maybe cheese surrounding the dog? Just thought of this when I saw the picture. Thanks for the lovely blog.

Every veggie hot dog barand I've tried has these tiny clear / opaque cubes in them. I first noticed them in Yves, but I've since found them in every other brand. They seem to be tasteless, but the weird me out. I assumed they were oils of some sort, and that I wasn't getting the dogs hot enough to melt them, but I've yet to get rid of them in any dog. It's really put me off of veggie dogs, which is annoying b/c I used to love them.

To answer your question anonymous about why vegans would want to eat something immitating a dead animal. I can't speak for all vegans, but I'm not really vegan for animal cruelty as much as for health reasons, although animal cruelty is an issue. I guess I figure they are going to kill the animals regardless of whether or not I eat them, but scientific evidence is overwhelming in regard to how much healthier a diet which excludes meat and dairy items are, providing that you are mindful of making sure that your diet includes an inclusive range of nutrients.

It's also important to avoid excessively eating vegan sweets that will end up doing counter-productive harm because of high sugar content. After all, the point of being vegan in my book is to avoid an otherwise more disease-proned diet.

As far as the "fake meats" are concerned, they are a good source of protein when you don't feel like eating black beans or garbanzos all the time. I eat fake meats because they are delicious and healthy (as long as you don't overdo having a lot of the overly-processed ones), not to try and compensate for not being able to eat real meat since I grew up never eating real meat.

I made these today replacing all the maple syrup with vanilla soy milk and medium ground corn meal and my kids loved them!!! This will become a quick go to meal for busy days! The recipe is too easy! Great idea!